Revenge On The Dawn
by The Vampire Avatar
Summary: Pretty much book nine only Mr. Crepsley LIVES! There's only one problem. There's a cost for both Steve and Darren in order for him to live. It might just kill them. I swear i can never do summaries. Oh well, sounds better than it looks. Please read...dedicated to Vampanezegirl97 ***Chapter one was remade***
1. Say what's on your mind

_**Alright guys, before I begin I wanted to thank you all for the reviews, favorites, alerts, all that good stuff :D The last chapter was a little rushed, so I'm re-writing it and going a little slower with more detail in it. Hope you guys like this one better than the last! Then I am going to just write the second chapter along . Since I'm writing anyway, and there's not much to do at 2 in the morning so... Hope you like it!**_

*****this is dedicated to my friend, Vampanezegirl97*****

**Disclaimer:Do. Not. Own.**

Mr. Crepsley shoved the Vampaneze Lord over the edge of the platform into the flaming stakes below. It seemed like time was playing in slow motion or something when he dropped. I thought that it would never end, the way he just kept falling and freaking out over something so stupid. If he had been prepared to die, maybe it wouldn't have been such a dramatic death.

He hit the stakes with a sickening splat and I closed my eyes for the briefest second. When I opened them I saw that it had killed him on contact. His body was being eaten away by the flames and was barely recognizable with all of the bloody holes the stakes had punched into him.

There was a moment of complete silence. You could even hear the Vampaneze Lord's body being burned on the stakes. It took me a few minutes before realizing that we had won the war!

I tried to move my still shocked lips to form words, but it was harder to do so then I imagined. Even I couldn't hear anything I said at my first attempt. Then I said it with more confidence.

"W-We...We won the war! The war is over! WE WON!" When I first spoke, all heads turned towards me. Eventually, they had begun to realize it too, so the vampires, humans, and the one little person started to shout and yip like mad dogs while the vampets and vampaneze just looked even more shocked and stared at their lord, oblivious to the world.

After I was done jumping up and down with Harkat, I looked up to Mr. Crepsley. He had sat down on the platform and was smiling down at me. "Congrats, Mr. Crepsley. You killed him," I called up to him.

He smiled and shook his head at me. "What? Did you expect for me to lose? You have such horrible confidence in me, boy."

I smiled up at Mr. Crepsley for a moment before a freezing wind came in and stopped me cold for a minute, but it passed and I turned towards Vancha who was staring at his brother intensely. I tried to talk to him, but he just kept his focus on his brother. I eventually gave up on talking to him and turned towards Harkat, but he was busy. He was jumping up and down, but he had stopped and was suspended in mid-air. Wait, _what!_

I tried to touch him, but before I could a sickening voice sneered behind me. "I wouldn't do that, Mr. Shan. You could hurt him. But, that wouldn't matter to me. I would actually enjoy that." I turned to see Mr. Tiny smiling at me. Behind him, I noticed, was Evanna. She looked up at me, met my eyes and looked back down to the ground.

"How is Harkat like that?" My voice bounced off the walls for minute, even though I barely whispered it. I turned around when my voice started to bounce and gasped. Everything had stopped. The fire was still, Vancha was still staring at his brother, Mr. Crepsley was still up there looking up, Alice and Debbie were hugging each other, and all the vampaneze were still staring at their lord in the fire.

I turned back around when Mr. Tiny started talking again. "I froze time. Easy as that. I needed to talk to you and Steve." _Steve?_

I turned back around to see Steve standing next to Mr. Crepsley. He had a knife in his hand, almost next to Mr. Crepsley's throat. I gasped and shouted "NO!" Steve turned towards me, smiling an evil smile. Mr. Tiny laughed and said, "Now, now boys. Today isn't the day we find out who the Lord of The Shadows is. But tonight, you are going to get powers like you never imagined. You'll be able to talk to the other in your minds. You will have such great speed that even a full blooded vampire and vampaneze will barely be able to follow your movements and strength to match. But tonight you can't kill each other, but you are able to kill anybody else. In fact, Steve, I want you to kill as many vampires and or humans you can get your hands on. Darren, same for you only with the vampaneze." I looked at him like he was crazy, which he probably was.

_Wait_, I thought, _if I am meant to fight the Lord of the Vampaneze to the death, and the one who lives_ _is the Lord of the Shadows, that means_...I gasped. _Steve was the Lord, Mr. Crepsley sent a fake lord_ _to their death!_ We hadn't won the war...yet.

"Father, I don't think that is such a good idea. WE don't know if they will kill somebody vital to the night of-" Evanna spoke up for the first time tonight.

"Hush. If they do, whoever they kill will be replaced. You know that. Now, let's see some deaths tonight, shall we?" In Tiny's hand was his watch, which started to grow a bright red. "Time will start up once again in about a minute. Until then it will be something of the sort of slow motion to you, but if you move it will almost be like...what do humans call it? The speed of light? Anyway, good luck boys." Tiny smiled once more then he and his daughter walked past everybody and stood by the exit. Evanna smiled a small, sad smile at me before looking away.

_**Well, let's get this show on the road, shall we? First is Creepy Crepsley. Then, you Darren.**_ A voice in my head spoke. I gasped and held my head at first before remembering what Tiny said. It was Steve...and if Steve was speaking...

"NOO!" I screamed at him. He had a blade pressed to Mr. Crepsley's neck and made the tiniest of cuts on his neck before bringing the blade back.

"What? Don't want to see your master die? Too bad! I'm going to make sure he has a _hell of a time_ _before I kill him_!" He said the last part so dark that it scared me stiff for a moment.

"No, Steve, It's not that. It's just that I thought that you might have wanted to kill the person that had the idea." I said in a poker-voice. I had to lie. On the inside, I was scared stiff, but I had to make Steve think that I was the one who, according to him, came up with the idea to betray him and become a vampire. In reality, I traded my life to be Mr. Crepsley's assistant and in exchange, he gave Steve the antidote. If we knew what monster he would have become, I don't think that either of us would even consider thinking about giving him the antidote.

Steve stopped and turned on me in less than a second. "What do you mean?" he growled "What are you talking about?"

_**You know what I'm talking about Steve**_, I smirked. _**You know exactly what I am talking about.**_

Steve's eyes widened before narrowing into slits of evil. If demons really existed, which wouldn't surprise me, that's what their eyes would look like.

_**Do you need a reminder? Okay. I will give you one. I planned with him, Steve. I snuck out and went to the Cirque one night. I found Mr. Crepsley and made a deal with him. I would give him my assistance, would always serve him, if he made me what you could never be. A vampire. It took a while to make him see reason, but he soon did. Anyway, you know the rest. The spider bit you, I gave you the antidote, blah,blah,blah. But you know what's the best part?**_

Steve was fuming. He was taking deep, long breathes and releasing it with a growl. Honestly, to me he sounded like a bull. "Don't you dare do it, Darren. Don't you dare." By now, we had about thirty seconds left before time went back to normal. Harkat slowly reached the ground. Vancha started to blink, and turn away from his brother. Mr. Crepsley slowly brought his head down, then put a hand to his neck where Steve had cut him. Debbie and Alice slowly ended their hug and turned towards us, smiling bigger than ever.

_**I planned it all out. I told him what to say if you ever asked to be his assistant. He agreed. It was me. He just went along for it. I told him to say what you were, are, and always will be. **_

Steve growled one more time as a warning.

_**I told him because it's true.**_ Mr. Crepsley's voice came into my head, which I happily shared with Steve. _"You have bad blood!" Mr. Crepsley screamed. "What do you mean?"Steve asked, his voice trembling. "You are evil! I can taste it in your blood! You can never be a vampire, I will never allow it. Not as long as I live." Steve screaming for him to take it back, but the stubborn old bat never did. _

_**You are evil.**_

Steve howled and jumped off the platform. He made the jump and rolled when he hit to absorb the impact of the fall. He took out his chain and a small knife and looked up at me. Huh. I was right. Demons did exist. And I was about to fight one.

We still had a few seconds before time went back to normal. When Steve charged at me, it was a blur to me, but to the others it must have been like he was there one second, here the next.

Steve was in a ducking position. He started to chuckle like a mad man. He looked up at me. His smile was there, his classic one anyways. On the soccer field, before he was about to take the ball away or score an impossible goal, he would smile an evil smile. It was a smile that meant _I will never say no. I_ _will win. I will kill._

And the fact is, that scares me to this very day, that smile, the deadliest one that I will ever know, was _aimed at me!_


	2. The Fight of a Lifetime

**Again, thanks again to all the reviews,alerts,favorites, all that good stuff!**

*****this story is dedicated to the wonderful Vampanezegirl97*****

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. It all belongs to...Darren Shan. Character or author, I don't know. That part was kinda kinda confusing, huh? ;)  
**

* * *

Steve lunged at me. I only had my sword, and that was over by Vancha. I had left it there when the vampets and vampaneze told us that we had to put down our weapons or die.

But Steve, he had both of his weapons. Only a few more seconds. If I could get my sword and jump over to the platform where Mr. Crepsley is. Only problem: I need to get Mr. Crepsley off the platform. I ran as fast as I could over to my sword, I was fast, but Steve's chain was faster.

He whipped it at me, I could hear it coming at me before I felt it. It hit my neck, then wrapped it around my neck. The spikes on the chain dug into my neck and dug deeper when Steve tugged the chain back. I gasped. We only had mere seconds before time went back to being normal.

For them, they had no idea where Steve was. I tried screaming, but that only made I harder for me to breathe. I gasped for breath, I needed air! He was trying to choke me! _Somebody help me!_

The seconds were ticking by. I tried to keep count as best I could. As far as I could tell, we only had a few seconds left. I'm estimating about 15 left.

_15...  
_I tried to get out of the chains, but no luck. Steve was never one to give up.

_14..._  
I gasped for breath. Then I saw my sword next to Harkat's ax. I was only a few inches away. I reached down and grabbed Harkat's said weapon. I swung around and threw it at Steve. He had to let go of the chain, or his hand would have been chopped off. I knew this before I threw it, thus, I threw it. Easy as that.

_13...  
_Steve gasped, and let go of the chain and flew himself to the ground, letting the ax hit a vampaneze in the head, making a quick end of him. I smirked and went to work on the chains. The spikes scratched my neck a little, but other than that I was fine. I wound up the chain then threw it at a random spot in the crowd. It landed with a thud and slid a little on the ground, but other than that it was still.

_12...  
_ Steve got up from the ground and growled. "How DARE you?" He growled. "I could have let you die easy, but no! Now, you will die a horrible,slow death, same as Creepy!"

_11...  
_He took out his nine inch blade knife and was about to put it to use on me. I ran over to my sword and picked it up from the ground. Steve was running towards me and his demon eyes showed no mercy.

_10...  
_I started to run over to the platform. I was prepared to die if that meant that Steve would die. I think that would be fair, a monster dying for the other monster that he saved. I had reached the platform, but Steve was right behind me. He was screaming in my head, _**C**__**ome back, Darren! Don't you want to PLAY?**_

_9...  
_Just as I was about to jump up to the platform when Steve ran to the side of my right. I looked at him and he smiled a smile worthy of putting any smile that Tiny could muster to shame. I had to jump, it was now or never. I jumped as high as I could. Surprisingly, I jumped higher than the platform itself! I landed in a crouched position and ran over to where Mr. Crepsley was. He was still looking down for Steve and more or less, me. Time was about to run out. Only a few more seconds left. I picked him up, he was really light! Guess Tiny was right, we did have strength to match. I turned him over and placed him on my back piggyback style. I looked over the edge to see where I could possibly land. I saw Steve smiling up at us, with his knife reflecting the flames. His eyes were shining purple._  
_Not just the color in his eyes changed, his whole eye changed! No white,no pupil, nothing. _Just purple._

_8...  
_I shook my head and took a few steps back for a running start. When I had decided that it was good enough, I bolted forward and leaped off the edge. I glanced back at Steve, who had jumped up at the same time as I jumped off. He had an evil scheme up his sleeve, I could tell from the way his purple eyes and smile were. He pulled back his arm as we were about to pass each other and threw his knife at me. I took Mr. Crepsley's knife from his belt and threw it at Steve. It soured through the air, same as Steve's.

_7...  
_The knives flew through the air, soaring like proud eagles would. Steve's flew straight into my knee, stabbing my world full of Mr. Crepsley's hit Steve directly in the chest. He would be okay, if he got some medical attention. He would be bleeding pretty badly though.  
But I was more concerned about us. I knew that we were in trouble. If I didn't make the landing, not only would I fall into the stakes, but Mr. Crepsley would too. With great difficulty, I threw him over to the ground where Vancha, Harkat, and the humans were. I crashed onto the ground, barely making the edge. I couldn't even straighten my knee, which made the crash even more painful. I tumbled around and rolled over myself a few times then stopped. Steve fell on the ground about twenty yards away from me. he was laying still.

**_I really hope I killed you._** I thought at Steve.

_6..._  
I couldn't get up. The pain flamed my entire body. I tried to get a look at it, but my other leg was in the way. I rolled over to get a better look at it. I gasped when i saw it and put my head down. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying that when I opened my eyes it would be gone. I knew as soon as I saw it that I was beyond screwed in this fight. The wound continued to make more blood come out. It had started to become a puddle of ruby red blood.

_5..._  
I cried out in agony. I couldn't fight in this condition. I just couldn't. But I had to. Time was slipping away. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get back up.  
_  
4..._

_3..._

_2..._

_1..._

_Time's up..._

I saw some lights flash behind my eyes and I felt really tired. As if I needed to sleep off the pain. I looked down at my knee again and saw that the entire blade had gone through my knee. A few inches of the blade was behind my knee while the handle of the blade was at my skin, begging to be let in.  
Suddenly, some wind swept through and ruffled my clothes a little. "Darren!" the familiar voices of my friends came into my ears. I opened my tired eyes to see them running over here. When they saw my eyes they took a few steps back. The first one to recover from the shock was Mr. Crepsley.  
"Darren, are you alright?" he asked, taking a few steps forward. I noticed that he had a severely bad limp and was having trouble standing up, forget about running.

I could only grunt in response. My knee was still in a lot of pain, which made my body feel like it was on fire.

Mr. Tiny and Evanna stepped out from the shadows. Evanna frowned a little when she saw my knee. "This is why they shouldn't have fought, Father. Now both of them are-"

"Shut up, girl! They will be FINE!" Tiny snapped at his daughter.

I got really tired all of a sudden and wanted to sleep. Just sleep until my death comes. "Darren, your eyes...they were just blue! Like glowing blue! It was almost your entire eyes...and it was literally glowing!" Harkat said. Even though he was right next to me, he sounded a mile away.

Mr. Crepsley came up to examine me. I had lost a lot of blood and I couldn't move my knee. After a few moments, he sighed then stood. "He has lost a lot of blood. He needs rest. But I am afraid that he will not wake if we do not give him more blood and stop his bleeding."

I was too tired to listen anymore. I could fight Steve anytime, right? Consciousness was slowly leaving me as I closed my eyes. Possible for the last time.

_I fell into darkness..._

_deeper..._

_deeper..._

_into nothingness..._

* * *

"Hello. You're Darren, right?" A friendly voice called out to me.

"Huh?" I open my eyes to see nothing but black all around me. I was lying down when I had woken up, but I sat up and rubbed my eyes when I heard the voice. When I saw nothing, I lied back down and started to sleep again. "You're Larten's assistant, right?" I jumped up and was on my feet ready for battle when a little kid's laugh broke out. Confused, I turned around for the umpteenth time that day.

There was a little boy, around 8 or 9. He was very small with orange hair and was smiling. He had a freckle or two, but otherwise his face was clean. He was so familiar and reminded me of somebody I knew very well.

"Are you Mr. Crepsley as a kid?" I asked uncertainly.

The child laughed and shook his head. "I'm not Larten! I guess you could say I'm his brother. My name is Vur Horston!"


	3. Vur Horston

_**Thanks to all who have reviewed! I'm really glad that you like it so far! :)**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**_

* * *

Vur laughed. "I'm not Larten. I guess you could say that I'm his brother. My name is Vur Horston!"

"Brother?" I asked the laughing child.

"Yep! Well, technically, I was his cousin, but we're close enough to be brothers! Like Wester!" The young boy smiled at me after he stopped jumping up and down.

"Um...sure. But who's Wester?" Vur's eyes widened and he blinked a few times.

"I shouldn't have told you about that. Don't remember it!" he said to me in a stern voice.

"Fine. I'll forget. Now, where are we? Are we dead?" I questioned Vur as I looked around. There seemed to be nothing but the two of us.

He shook his head. "No. I brought you here. You're not dead. Well, not yet anyway. You're just in the in between world. I can bring you here if I need to tell you something."

I nodded. "What do you need to tell me?"

Vur sighed and went up to me. He only came to my belly button, if that, but he put a hand on my chest since he couldn't put his hand on my shoulder. "I only need you to pass along a message to Larten. You won't remember any of this until the time is right for you to tell him. But anyway, I want you to tell him that I miss him and I don't blame him for what happened. I love him."

I nodded. Vur smiled and everything started to get blurry. "What's going on?" I panicked.

"You're going back to your world. Oh! Before I forget, I want you to give him this when you tell him my message, okay?" I felt something suddenly appear in my hand and looked down to see it was a ring. Only on the inside it said a name. It said "Vur."

I looked up to see the almost completely gone Vur. He was smiling and waving a goodbye to me. "That's the ring I got when I was here! It fits all finger sizes! Don't forget to give it to Larten! Bye!"

The last words were kind of blurred, but I managed to hear him just fine. Then there was this really high pitched noise. I brought my hands up to my ears and shut my eyes to try to block out the sound. It didn't let up and it kept getting louder and louder until I couldn't take it anymore and fainted…

I woke up to find myself being carried bridal style down the tunnels we came in. My knee was still hurting like crazy and I could barely move it without it screaming at me to stop. I sighed and looked up at my carrier and saw that it was Mr. Crepsley carrying me. He had a cut up by his eyebrows and it was bleeding, but now it was almost dried blood. He looked very tired and sore, but other than that he was fine. Vancha and Alice were slightly in front of us while Debbie and Harkat walked beside Mr. Crepsley and me. I put my head deeper into his chest. All I wanted to do was sleep again like I just did. I had a really strange dream, but I couldn't remember it at all, I just knew that it was a strange dream.

When Mr. Crepsley saw that I was awake, he smiled down at me and said some words, but I was too tired to listen to them. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the ride. I was about to fall asleep when we came to a stop. I opened my eyes to find that Alice and Vancha had stopped and were debating if we should go up back to the streets or not.

"I have to tell my people that I'm alive. Though I have no idea what I'm going to tell them. I can't tell that I was kidnapped by a vampire then fought to save their lives and two almost died. They would think that I was-" Alice began to rant, but Vancha stopped her.

"Tell the truth," Vancha grunted at her.

"Hardly! I'll just think of something else to-"She stopped talking. There was a figure in front of us. Cursing, Vancha brought out one of his many shurikens and was about to let it loose on whoever the figure was when the figure spoke.

"Peace, Vancha." The stranger said. Vancha lowered his weapon and said under his breath-almost in disbelief- "Evanna?"

The woman ahead of us nodded and told us that she came in peace, and that we needed to follow her.

"It will only be a few hours. I promise. I have food and you can return to your people as soon as I finish," Evanna said to Alice.

Alice shrugged. "I guess a few hours won't make a huge difference."

Evanna looked at Harkat, Debbie, Vancha and then Mr. Crepsley and myself. We all shared a look, nodded, then followed the witch up above ground.

Evanna gave Vancha and Mr Crepsley a deer hide to drape over their heads and shoulders while they walked outside (it was still daylight). Evanna must have casted a masking spell over us because nobody turned their heads towards the group of humans, vampires, witch and little person who had just come out of the sewers and gotten into a fight that left us bloody.

We ended up outside the city in a small forest where Evanna had prepared a camp. She even had a tent! When she offered us food, nobody rejected. We dug into the leaves and berries and gulped down the water that she had found.

We all ate silently. I studied the witch, wondering if she could heal my knee. I had been put down very carefully and was forced to keep my knee the way it was, otherwise it would hurt too much and I would cry out in pain every time I tried to move.

Vancha had finished eating first and snapped at Evanna. He wasn't in the mood to be polite.

"You are wondering how many chances you've used up," Evanna said, "The answer is three. The first was when you fought the vampaneze lord in the glade and let him escape. The second was when you discovered Steve Leonard was half vampaneze and took him hostage. Although you have had many chances to kill him, it only counts as one. And Darren," she looked at me. "You can tell them the third."

I looked down and sighed. "The third was when...when we fought him above the pit of stakes. Because…the Vampaneze Lord is Steve."

Almost everybody- excluding Evanna, as she knew this already- gasped. "You mean that Steve Leonard is their lord?" I nodded.

"But," Evanna said as everybody hung their heads in shock. "You still have one more shot to kill him." Vancha smiled at this and shouted in a triumphant voice "You hear that, Leonard? We have ONE MORE SHOT!" he screamed into the night.

"You can relax now though. This one last shot will come up in the future. Months from now. You can relax for a while." Evanna smiled at Vancha then turned towards me. "You fought bravely today. Though you are bursting with questions, I can only answer three of them. One, why your eyes were glowing. Remember what my father had said when time was frozen- your powers are getting stronger. Two, what happened when you were unconscious. Steve was bleeding so badly that they needed to stitch him up. They didn't want to chance you killing Steve, so they took him away while Larten grabbed you and ran out. They needed to leave in case it was a trap. It wasn't, but it was still wise to leave. And finally, three. Can I fix your knee. The answer is yes, but I will not. Steve gave it to you, so you must get help by yourself to fix it. It is one of those things where I can't interfere. Just like how I couldn't when time was frozen."

I sighed and looked at my knee while Alice questioned Evanna about the vampaneze. Debbie asked if the nightmare was over, and thankfully, for them it could be. Us on the other hand...

Well, it would never end for me or Steve. If I die, Steve is the Lord of the Shadows and he'll be damned. But if I kill Steve, I'll be the Lord of the Shadows and damned. For the other hunters, they might be able to get out of it, but I knew that they would never do that.

After Evanna, Alice and Debbie all talked about what they were going to do, she turned towards me, Harkat, Vancha and Mr. Crepsley. "Where do you four wish to go?"

"I'm going after that monster, Leonard," Vancha answered immediately.

"You may if you wish," Evanna shrugged. "But you'll be wasting your time and energy. Moreover, you'll jeopardize your position. Although you are destined to confront him again, it's not written in stone- by pursuing him now, you might miss the final destined showdown."

Vancha cursed than asked where he should go.

"Vampire Mountain. Your clan should be told who the Lord of the Vampaneze is. They can't kill him, but they can scout and point you in the right direction," Evanna answered.

Vancha nodded. "I'll call a temporary end to the fighting and send everybody out to search for him. I'll flit to the mountain tonight." He turned to us. "Are you guys coming?"

"No," I answered. "I'm not. I've had enough of the vampires and vampaneze for now. I know that I'm a Prince and all, but I feel...sick." I looked at Evanna. "And different. I need to get away for a while, if not forever."

Mr. Crepsley shook his head at me. "You need to go back. If you recall me saying, a prince must always put the clan before himself."

Vancha shook his head as well. "Plus, it's really dangerous to cut yourself from the ones who care for you."

"I can't help that." I sighed.

Mr. Crepsley was about to say something but Vancha cut him off. "I understand. I'll explain it to everybody when I get there. Nobody should trouble you." He cocked an eyebrow at Harkat and Mr. Crepsley. "I suppose you two are going with him?"

Harkat took the mask off of his face and coughed a little before answering. "Of course."

Mr. Crepsley didn't answer. He thought about it for a while with his eyebrows scrunched up. "I have a feeling that I need to go with Vancha." He looked at Evanna. "Am I right?"

Evanna nodded. "What?" I shouted. I tried to get up, but fell as soon as I tried. "You almost died! I can't lose you! If you die when you're gone, I won't be able to-"

"I will be fine. I promise," he said, trying to offer me comfort, but that only brought fear.

"You said that when you went up there, too," I mumbled.

Mr. Crepsley was shocked and lowered his head. I did the same. For a few seconds, it was dead silent. Vancha spoke and interrupted the silence. "Where will you go?" he asked Harkat and me.

"I don't know. I'll just pick a direction and..." I trailed off when a picture flashed in my mind. The picture with circus vans, snake-boys and hammocks. "The Cirque Du Freak," I decided. "It's the nearest place outside Vampire Mountain I can call home."

"A good choice," Evanna said, and by the way her lips lifted at the edges, I realized that the witch knew all along that we would be going to the Cirque.

We went our separate ways at sunset later that day. And even though we haden't slept in days, I felt as if I had just woken up. While the others had felt like they were about to drop with exhaustion. Vancha and Mr. Crepsley had departed first, but before they left, Vancha grabbed me and whispered into my ear, "Be brave!"

"You too," I whispered back.

"We'll kill Leonard next time!" he vowed.

"Aye." I smiled weakly. He nodded and turned to ran and within seconds, he hit flitting speed. Mr. Crepsley looked like he wanted to say something, but he shook his head and flitted off after Vancha.

Alice and Debbie left next. Debbie had asked me to stay with her, but I refused. I had to clear my mind for the time being. She wept and hugged me. "Will you come back?"

"Yes, of course," I whispered back.

"If he doesn't, you can always look for him," Evanna said. She handed a folded up piece of paper to Alice. "Hold onto that. Keep it closed. When you two decide to go, open it."

The chief asked no questions, just put the paper in her pocket and waited for Debbie to join her back to the city. She looked at me pleadingly. She really had wanted me to go with her. But I couldn't. I was too scared to even think about going with her, let alone anywhere with anybody else.

"Take care," I said to her. She started to cry and turned back to Alice.

"Goodbye," Alice said quickly and the two humans disappeared into the woods.

Evanna came over and sat down by me. I still couldn't move my knee and it was starting to hurt more. She smiled and started to say some words with her hand hovering over it, and the pain dulled. "That should last until we get to the Cirque. Now, let's go. And do either of you have any idea where the Cirque is playing at?" We shook our heads. "Then it's a lucky thing that I'm going. Come on."

We started to walk-she had casted a temporary healing spell for my knee.

"Darren," Harkat said after a while, "Where did you get that ring?"

I looked down at my hands, about to tell him that I didn't have a ring, when I saw there was a ring there! It was silver and had a bunch of what looked like black, sideways "S"s with lines in the middle of them. It was placed on my left middle finger. I took it off and looked at it. The weird part was that it said "Vur" in the middle.

I wondered if it was Mr. Crepsley's then dismissed the idea. After all, nobody's real name was Vur, right? I was sure his true name was Larten. Plus I would have remembered if he had worn a ring.

Evanna looked sad for a moment, then sighed. "You'll remember soon enough, Darren. The time is coming."

Harkat and I looked at her confused, "What are you talking about?" I asked, putting the ring back on.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," She mumbled then carried on. Harkat and I stopped, looked at each other. After a while he smiled at me and I smiled back.

"C'mon, let's go," I said and started to walk, Harkat following, back to the Cirque Du Freak.

_End of book 9_

* * *

_**A/N: Yes! I got all my stories that I wanted to do, finished! ^u^ **_

_**The tenth book will contain Mr. Crepsley about as much as it does contain Mr. Tall. About there..ish.**_

_**Anyway, be on the lookout for more! :D I've put up a poll on my profile for you guys to help choose which one I should do first. I have an idea, but I wanna hear what you guys wanna say!**_

_**Please review and vote! **_

_**love you guys!**_

_**~Cat Attack 411**_


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